Just A Number
by arandomshipper
Summary: Ever wonder where Six got his name? I have. Here's what I came up with.


A/N: This is a pre-canon story. I don't recall if they ever actually offered an explanation about Six's name. If they did, this story is not consistent with canon.

Disclaimer: I'm not an owner, I'm just a random shipper.

 **Just A Number**

Two men walked down a long hallway, conversing. Both were in their fifties. One wore a lab coat, and had the disheveled appearance that often accompanies genius. The other wore army attire. The scientist was doing most of the talking.

"I think you'll be very pleased with the results. I can safely say that the experiments were an unmitigated success. All of our dearest hopes have been realized. Each of them could easily be expected to take out an entire company of special ops soldiers without receiving serious injury, even Six, whose inexplicable, obsessive attachment to melee weapons, or, more to the point, his outright refusal to use guns of any kind, makes him the least deadly of the lot."

The General snorted. "Absurd. My higher-ups may have great expectations from this program, but you want to tell me that a single one of your artificial toy soldiers can take on one hundred Green Berets, the finest killing machines the US Army is capable of producing, without injury? Your 'expectations' are sure to be disappointed once you test them out."

"Oh, we've already done that." The scientist replied smugly. "We've had each of the six run ten combat simulations against various JSOC companies. For the first few we had everyone use only tracer rounds, but after the risk to our valuable assets was proven to be insignificant, we allowed the JSOC forces to use live rounds, while continuing to restrict our experiments to tracer rounds." His face turned sour. "Except for Six, who, again, refused to use anything but his beloved swords, which he blunted for the occasion."

"I'll believe that when I see it." The General harumphed.

"Of course, of course. And so you shall. But first, let's have you meet the future of the US army. Here we are."

They entered what appeared to be a large living room of sorts, with six doors leading to what were presumably bedrooms. Leaning against the wall in the living room was a man of average height and a slight build, with very short brown hair, a green suit and tie, and sunglasses. He did not look up from his task at their entrance, continuing to sharpen the blade in his hand, a ninjato from its appearance.

"Here we have the common area, and the one with the sword over there, as you can probably guess, is Six. Six, say hello to the good General, would you?"

He briefly glanced up without interest and gave a short nod of greeting before returning to his task.

The General frowned disapprovingly. "What rudeness! Haven't you taught them any respect for their superiors?"

The scientist gave a slightly embarrassed laugh. "They're all a bit lacking in social skills. After all, we did not make them to entertain at parties. They follow orders. That should be good enough, yes?"

"We'll see." The General grunted. "So where are the rest of these...things?"

"In their rooms, most likely." The scientist replied. After a quick check proved that assumption false, he grew puzzled. "Six! Where are the other experiments?"

The green-suited man shrugged dismissively without bothering to glance up from the item of his interest. The _shink! shink!_ sound was only interrupted for a moment when he held it up to inspect the blade more carefully in the light, then immediately started back up again.

The scientist's puzzlement increased. "Where could they have gone? I don't understand."

The General said nothing, experiencing a rather strange mix of emotions. On the one hand, he was feeling smug about an apparent failure within a program that he did not approve of. On the other, he was irritated and insulted at the waste of his valuable time.

The scientist continued to search, growing more frantic and panicked by the moment. "This simply doesn't make any sense. There's nowhere for them to go. Everything they need is provided them here. I would've been informed if they'd left the facilities."

The General couldn't resist a jab. "Maybe they weren't such good little soldiers after all, got sick of taking orders, ran away. Or maybe," he continued sarcastically, "'Six' over there didn't want to be six anymore and bumped the others off so he could be One."

"No, that's impossible." The Scientist answered, completely missing the sarcasm in the General's voice. "They were created without personalities. They have no inherent desires, ambitions, or preferences of their own, which means they would not run away, and Six would not kill the others. Not that I think he could, of course, but even if he were to have such a strange desire, that isn't how it works anyway. Moving up as the ones in front of you fall is Military and Social thinking. This is science. Their numbers are their experiment numbers, not some kind of ranking system. Even if we are unable to find the other five, Six will continue to be Six."

The General shrugged. "So, what now?"

"I suppose we must check the rest of the facilities. We'll start with the training room. Maybe someone in the program took them there for some unscheduled sessions."

"Lead on, then."

The two men left the room. The thin man halted his motions once again to inspect the blade. As he eyed it, he heaved a great sigh. "Dang it."


End file.
